FALL RIVER — Adriana Lopez, 7 years old, had perhaps the most important job out of all of her peers a recent Wednesday morning. She carried the stop sign.

Lopez was one of about 20 students from Letourneau Elementary School who walked to their school together via a program called the walking school bus. Despite the name, there is no bus involved. The walking school bus does ensure that students who walk to school have a safe way to get there, walking in large groups, with adults.

It’s also a tool in school officials’ efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism rates. Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10 percent or more days during the school year. So for a school calendar that consists of 180 days, 18 days or more of missed school constitutes chronic absenteeism. So far this year, just under 23 percent of students have missed at least 10 percent of school, according to recent school department statistics.

Roughly two-fifths of Letourneau’s 538 students take a bus to school. Most students are either dropped off by their parents or walk.

This walking bus route, Letourneau’s first, travels by the houses of some chronically absent students.

Letourneau Vice Principal David Assad led the group this particular morning, while Kimberly Luz, a paraprofessional at the school, walked at the rear. Their roughly mile-long journey started on Miller Street.

Assad and Luz greeted the students.

“Here comes Alicia,” Luz said, as one girl raced toward them.

“We’re so glad to see you,” Assad said to her.

Both Assad and Luz wore bright orange vests over their coats. Large lettering spelled out “Safe Routes to School” on the backs of the vests. A few more students joined them. They were wearing coats, hats and mittens, and had on backpacks bearing the likenesses of familiar cartoon characters, from the minions of “Despicable Me” to “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

It was about 30 degrees — chilly, but warmer than it had been for much of the winter — with a blue, nearly cloudless sky overhead. And the snow that had covered sidewalks since late January was mostly melted, all but for a few small brown-and-white piles.

“Are you guys ready?” Assad and Luz asked. Then they advanced out onto the open sidewalk. Assad held a student’s hand.

Their next stop was a home only 50 feet away, where a boy scampered out the front door to join them.

Luz helped the boy tie his shoelaces before they proceeded to the next house.

They turned right to head south onto Stafford Road, children chatting among themselves, giggling. Some boys attempted, with mixed success, to balance and walk on curb stones along the edges of lawns they passed.

They came to several intersections, first Aetna Street, then Orswell Street. That’s when Adriana was called into duty. As her peers made their way across the crosswalks, she stood in the center, hoisting the stop sign into the air as high as she could, arm outstretched. Then, after the last student crossed, she and Luz made their way quickly onto the sidewalk.

After passing several houses, 14 students were already in the group, less than 10 minutes into the walk.

One girl raced down her front steps to joined them. Her mother, peering out of a window on the second floor, waved.

Then they encountered two other students, who were walking with a parent. Those students were not usually with their group, but were headed in the same direction.

“Are you guys walking to Letourneau?” Luz asked them. The students nodded. “You can walk with us.” And thus, they joined. Then the whole group crossed Embert Street, and continued on.

Another boy, Preston DeLima, hugged his mom, Maria, just before joining them.

Then they made their last turn, onto Anthony Street.

“Today was a good group,” Assad said after the group arrived at Letourneau. There were 20 students all together that morning.

“We try to help out the parents,” he said, noting that some of them may have even younger children, toddlers and infants. It’s not always easy for those parents to take their school-age children to school.

The 15-minute walk also helps children come into school energized and ready to learn, Letourneau Principal Brian Raposo said, following their arrival. “It’s safe.”

It also gives school leaders a chance to visit and become familiar with their students’ neighborhoods.

“It’s so important to see where our kids come from,” Raposo said.

At least two city schools now have a walking school bus program: Letourneau and the John J. Doran Community School.

Doran’s program was started by the school’s attendance officer, Brenda Racine, explained principal Maria Pontes. Like at Letourneau, it’s one tool in the school’s efforts to reduce absenteeism, and ensure students have safe ways to get to school. The walking bus program is new, and is one route so far. Pontes said she would like to see it grow.

Pontes said one concern of parents had was their children walking to school by themselves. It had been a reason why some students had been frequently absent.

“We ask parents why aren’t they coming to school?” Pontes said, “And they tell us, their kids are walking by themselves, and they are afraid, because they’re little.”

Chronic absenteeism at Doran has been significantly reduced over the past few years, Pontes said. A few years ago, more than 50 percent of Doran students were chronically absent. So far this year, about 15.6 percent.

“We’ve chipped away at that number,” Pontes said. “Our goal, I would love to see us at 100 percent.”

“Students who aren’t in school have gaps in learning,” Pontes said. There’s no substitute for “face-to-face” learning with teachers in the classroom. While there are opportunities to do make-up work at home, “it’s not the same.”

“Children are missing that, and never can recoup,” she said.

Attendance is improving, and parents are hearing the message that unless their children are sick, they need to be in school, Pontes said. “I would say, our parents are very good. Parents know the importance. They have been very good about being partners.”

“I think it’s just a lot of work every day,” Pontes said.

While the record snowfall more than a month ago had made sidewalks impassible and kept the walking school buses dormant for more than a month, they have since restarted and are ongoing. And other inclement whether, like rain, shouldn’t be hindrances.

Letourneau students now have umbrellas, courtesy of St. Anne’s Fraternity.

“They’re all brand-new, flashy colors,” said Marcia Picard, who works with Fall River Public Schools as a school wellness coordinator, via Partners for a Healthier Community. The organization was another driving force in establishing the walking program.